


It won’t rain

by Lila17



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: (it’s the hunger games), Biblical References, Character Study, Death, District 5, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Katniss mentioned a Games that took place in a desert, and this fic vaguely takes place in that year, where a lot of ppl died from thirst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-26
Updated: 2018-11-26
Packaged: 2019-08-29 22:01:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16752268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lila17/pseuds/Lila17
Summary: The Arena is dry and unforgiving.





	It won’t rain

 

 

 

 

  
  
  
  


_ He began to warn the people. He said after a while, it’s gonna rain after a while; for forty days and forty nights. And the people didn’t believe him, and they began to laugh at him, and they began to mock him, and they began to say- it ain’t gonna rain! _

  
  
  
  


 

 

The Arena is dry and unforgiving. It's a flat desert, and she has found no source of water yet in the day she’s been here. If she was back home, her mother would call this a squeeze Games- one where the tributes are forced to make things fast and bloody, trying to kill everyone else and end the Games quickly before they themselves die of exposure.

She hasn’t found or even seen any water sources yet, and she’s worried. The Arena is scorching during the day, water is the one thing she needs above all else. She looks up, searching the sky for clouds.

There are none. It won’t rain.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


_ So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens… _

The moment she starts crying, she wipes her face with her hands and licks the tears from her palms. She does not have the water to waste.

What a trick; what a trick. Her stylist cooed over the blue of her eyes, how like the ocean they were. What a pity she wasn’t from District Four, he commented, otherwise they could have played up the angle; but no, Five instead of Four, one District off.

What a trick, what a trick.  _ Arenas nearly always have sources of water _ , her mentor had said, because dry Arenas meant a faster Games, and a slim week or two of gore was never enough to satiate the Capitol.

She was encouraged by this, and encouraged by her perhaps single advantage; the fact that she could swim, when most people from outlying Districts could not.

A desert.

What a trick.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


_ The Lord then said to Noah, “Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made.” _

_ “Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you righteous in this generation.” _

Her brother was strange, even stranger than she feels right now, in the midst of her terrible thirst. The sun hurts her eyes and she sees flashes of black and gold on the horizon, and still he was stranger than her.

He whispered things that were dangerous, that she had never heard anyone say. About finding old texts from civilizations long ago buried in the ground, about things beyond Panem, even beyond this world. About a person called God, someone with infinite power- like the President, but even higher.

He talked about how they believed that God would care for people, would ease their suffering.

He talked about how that God once drowned a whole world of cruel-hearted people with rain, while saving those who were good. 

He talked about a lot of strange things. 

The Capitol is and always has been filled with cruel-hearted people; they don't like anything that could drive someone to think about a world beyond Panem. Once, he spoke too loudly. The Peacekeepers took him and he did not come back.

She squints at the sky, trying to ignore the pain in her throat. No clouds. It won’t rain.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


_ The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the human heart was evil. The Lord regretted...and his heart was deeply troubled. _

She is slowly going insane, she knows it.

She has seen this on the TV before, tributes who slowly go mad from thirst. Her eyes hurt and she is tired, she is weak. She has not seen another human for days, and she would not be able to fight off another person now even if she were to see one.

She sees strange things in the desert now- hallucinations. She pleads to the earth, pleads to the sky, pleads to the cameras that she knows are watching her. She pleads for salvation. For water.

She knows that every person in Panem is watching her die right now. The sponsors in the Capitol who won’t listen to her cries, yes, but her family back in District Five as well. Her lovely mother and lovely father and her innocent, blameless little sister.

Her strange brother, even, wherever he may be.

She changes positions in the Arena every day because of some long forgotten strategy that tells her that she must. She will not have the strength for it, soon- perhaps she should find a shelter now while she still can, a place to spend her last day in.

She watches for the sky for silver parachutes, but none come.

Nothing will ever come down from this desert sky, she thinks bitterly. 

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


_ Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for the people on earth had corrupted their ways. So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them.” _

On the...on the seventh day, the sixth day, the fourteenth day, she doesn’t know, she swears she sees an angel.

Her eyes fuzz and the sand is bright and she is weak and she collapses inside of a cave. In the distance she sees figures, she swears she does, beings of light and power that are everything her brother said they were. Her head spins off her shoulders, searching for water that is not there, and her eyes blur and see seven colors at once.

This is not the end she would have chosen. Everything is agony; if she could go back, she would get herself killed at the bloodbath just to die quickly. She doesn’t know who’s still alive in these Games, who’s dead, and she has no strength to go seek out survivors either way.

Death is coming soon. It won’t rain.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


_ They didn’t believe it was gonna rain. But glory to God. Hallelujah! Bless God’s wonderful name this evening. I said, this evening. After a while, they didn’t believe it was gonna rain. But sure enough, it began to rain. _

_ It’s gonna rain, it’s gonna rain. _

It does not rain.

In her final hours, she curses everything. The Capitol, the President, her mentor, even her parents. She sobs and nothing comes out, because she has nothing to give.

She curses her brother, her stupid brother, her brother and his God and his rain that would kill the bad and help the good. She falls asleep for the last time in the desert, feeling so, so tired.

It won’t rain.

It won’t rain.

**Author's Note:**

> First and last quotes come from Steve Reich’s It’s Gonna Rain, and the rest are from the Bible. If any of y’all are Bible experts don’t come after me, I know I cut some stuff out/rearranged some words.
> 
> Just because I showed this to someone else and they didn’t get it: the point of the story is that back in the flood in Biblical myth, God at least intervened in the world when it started filling up with horrible people, even if he did it by killing basically everyone. But now, in Panem, the world is filling up with horrible people again and no God is bothering to interfere. It won’t rain.


End file.
